Ron Higgins: Barry Brunetti's start rare among QBs

Last Memphis-area quarterback to be starter in SEC game seems to have been 46 years ago

I've researched on the Internet, rummaged through old football media guides and reference books.

I've called former Memphis-area sportswriters who have computer chip memories.

My conclusion (and if I'm wrong, I welcome reader input):

This Saturday, when former MUS star Barry Brunetti starts at quarterback for Ole Miss against Brigham Young, he's apparently the first Memphis or Shelby County high school product to start at QB for a Southeastern Conference team since Whitehaven High's Charlie Fulton in 1965 for Tennessee.

Forty-six years and 662 miles apart, Fulton, 64 and working in Gainesville, Fla., where he has lived for about 40 years, and Brunetti, who celebrated his 20th birthday Tuesday in Oxford, both can't believe this slice of Bluff City/SEC trivia.

"Considering there's some pretty good athletes there in Memphis, I am surprised by that," said Fulton, a Whitehaven class of '64 grad who opened the '65 season as the Vols' starting QB in the opener against Army.

"Whoa!" added a shocked Brunetti, MUS class of 2010, of the supposed four-decade-plus absence of a Memphis-bred player starting as an SEC quarterback. "That's crazy."

It is hard to believe when you consider all the Memphis and Shelby County high school football talent that has historically filtered through the SEC. For instance, when the '11 season opens this weekend, there will be 12 former Memphis/Shelby County high schools stars (seven starters) as SEC first- or second-teamers.

More astounding is that Brunetti and Fulton may have never had chances to start as SEC quarterbacks if not for a touch of fate.

For Brunetti, a sophomore who led MUS to back-to-back state championships in 2008 and 2009 then signed with West Virginia, it was his decision to transfer home because of his mother's health issues.

"Every high school guy wants to start as a freshman," said Brunetti, who played in four games last season as a true freshman. "But once you get on campus, you're adjusting to everything -- the speed on the field, the amount of time you have to spend on academics. Last year matured me a lot."

In Fulton's case, fate was then-new Tennessee coach Doug Dickey changing his offense from the single wing that Fulton ran in high school to the T-formation.

"I had to learn to get up under the center and take snaps," said the then-5-10, 165-pound Fulton, who threw for 425 yards and four TDs in his first year as a starter before a season-ending broken rib injury in game seven against Ole Miss in Memphis. "I had a hard time doing it. I had to work pretty hard at it."

Fulton never got his starting QB job back after that first season. Dewey Warren developed into a top-notch passer and Dickey liked Fulton better as a starting running back the rest of his career (though he was available as a backup QB for mostly option running situations).

"Charlie was the whole show," said Dickey, who's retired and living in Jacksonville. "He could do more with a fumble than most guys could with an organized play."

Fulton went on to play a couple of seasons in the Canadian Football League for Edmonton (where he was the CFL's Rookie of the Year as a QB) and Vancouver before joining Dickey in 1970 when he left the Vols after six seasons (including two SEC championships) to become Florida's head coach.

Fulton, who still has three sisters living in the Memphis area, married a Gainesville girl. He still lives just 8 miles from the Gators' Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, where he attends Florida's home games.

He may get a chance to see Brunetti live in a couple of years when Florida rotates back to Ole Miss' schedule for a Gainesville appearance.

In the meantime, Brunetti is counting the hours to his Rebels' debut.

"I don't regret going to West Virginia, but I'm anxious to play in front of my friends and family," said Brunetti, "This is why you play college football, to play in front of your people. I love it. I'm blessed to get a chance to start as a sophomore."

Sizzle

1. Five straight BCS national championships for the SEC

2. Eight teams in the AP preseason top 25

3. Alabama has averaged 38.9 points in winning its last nine season openers

Fizzle

1. LSU lives up to nickname "Fightin' Tigers" with Aug. 19 bar brawl that leads to two player arrests and suspensions, including starting QB Jordan Jefferson